Empty Country—the project started by former Cymbals Eat Guitars frontman Joseph D’Agostino—are gearing up to put out their second full-length, Empty Country II. Though now with a slightly different line-up than on 2020’s eponymous debut, Empty Country have expanded both their musical and lyrical outlook since that record, building on those already-impressive foundations to craft a collection of songs that reaches deep into the dark heart of their home country in 2023.
D’Agostino recently moved from Philadelphia to smalltown New England, a place where the ravaging effects of the American capitalist paradigm are more salient than ever, transformed as they are into a right-wing mindset easily symbolized by red caps and Blue Lives Matter flags. It’s in and against that misguided ideology—the problem, after all, is the two-party system, rather than either of the two parties—that this record’s nine stunning songs are set, offering up an escape and response that’s both personal and political to their surroundings.
“David”—a tribute to D’Agostino’s late friend, Silver Jews’ David Berman—falls more into the former category, though the evils of the world still creep in. It’s a triumphant elegy about the power of music (specifically Berman’s music), one that’s as uplifting as it is melancholy, and which is imbued with nods to Silver Jews songs and Berman’s own life—not least through the invocation of his father, whom Berman himself called “a despicable man... [a] human molestor... an exploiter... a scoundrel.”
And yet at the center of this song is a true emotional frailty, an unbridled and unrestrained vulnerability. It turns this into a kind of unhinged, semi-joyous requiem that sums up Berman’s life and legacy in just over five minutes, while also re-establishing D’Agostino as a songwriter unafraid to reveal and revel in his own insecurities. “I’m scared to die, but I’m not scared of death,” he sings twice on the track, and as much as it’s him singing, it’s also Berman, and it’s also all of us.
Check out the video for the song below, and pre-order the record here.
